The Cabinet’s plan for constitutional amendments will not involve sections concerning the monarchy to avoid conflict, according to Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Commerce Phumtham Wechayachai.

Phumtham Wechayachai

At a press conference on Tuesday (3 October), Phumtham said that the Cabinet has agreed that there will be a referendum to ask whether people want the Constitution to be amended, and that they will not amend Chapters 1 and 2 of the Constitution, or any other section that concerns the monarchy.

Chapter 1 contains the general provisions and includes sections on the form of government. Sections 1 and 2, for example, state that Thailand is an indivisible Kingdom and that it is ruled under a democratic form of government with the King as the Head of State. Chapter 2 deals with the position and authority of the monarch.

Phumtham said that the Cabinet will try to make the process as democratic as possible, and that this is a condition they agreed upon so that the committee can work without having conflicting principles.

When asked why the Cabinet would not amend Chapters 1 and 2 even though they have been amended before, Phumtham said that the government wants to resolve conflict and avoid issues that have not been resolved.

“We must pass the Constitution. To pass the Constitution, we are going to avoid any issue where there is conflict,” he said.

“We will make the Constitution more democratic, because there is not just one measure of democracy. … It’s a society with many differences, and we have to find common ground. We think that this is an important point that create problems, so we try to avoid it. We’ve come to this point and we probably need to do a lot more and it must be accepted by all of society, otherwise there will be new conflict that we have created, which should not happen.”

Phumtham expects that the entire process, including the drafting of organic laws, will take all of the government’s 4-year term, and that the first referendum will take place before the end of this year. He said the government also wants to reduce the number of referenda needed to reduce the expense and time needed.

35 people have been named for the Committee studying approaches to constitutional amendments, with Phumtham as chairperson and Chusak Sirinil as deputy chair. Other members included academics and representatives of political parties. The Committee will meet for the first time on 9 October.

The Move Forward Party has been invited to send a representative to join the committee. However, the Party said its MPs voted to decline the invitation and will not join the committee until the government makes clear whether the entire Constitution can be amended and whether the Constituent Assembly will be elected.

The Party said that although it thanks the government for inviting a representative to join the committee and is ready to cooperate with the government if the work is in line with its goals, it will not be joining the committee at this time since the government has not made clear what the committee’s goals would be, including whether it will allow a new constitution to be drafted and whether the Constituent Assembly will be elected. These conditions are what the party believe will lead to a legitimate Constitution that is acceptable to all citizens and reflects a new consensus that includes the diverse opinions in the society.

Nevertheless, MFP said that it is willing to let a representative join the committee in the future if the government confirms that it will abide by these two conditions, and is willing to cooperate with the government in planning the referendum and other related issues, such as regarding the Constituent Assembly.

The Party said that it has always insisted that a new Constitution should be drafted by an entirely elected Constituent Assembly, and that the first referendum should ask whether people agree that Thailand needs a new Constitution to replace the 2017 Constitution, which would then be drafted by a Constituent Assembly directly elected by the people, without changing the democratic regime with the King as the head of state or changing th form of government.

MFP MP Parit Wacharasindhu previously filed an urgent motion asking parliament to call a referendum on whether the entire Constitution should be amended by an elected Constituent Assembly. However, the motion has not been discussed in parliament.

Phumtham also said during the press conference that the government intended to invite iLaw to join the committee, but did not do so because he saw an interview in which a representative said they do not wish to serve as a rubber stamp for the committee. However, they will invite iLaw to join meetings between the committee and the civil society.

iLaw manager Yingcheep Atchanont said that the Cabinet has not reached out to iLaw and asked them to sit on the committee. However, he said that they do not wish to join the committee, since they feel that too many studies have been conducted on and iLaw has already presented their proposal, supported by more than 200,000 voters through the proper channels.

He wrote in a later post that iLaw has no problem working for the government if it is for something useful, but he felt uncomfortable about the position of the committee. If he had been invited to join, Yingcheep wrote that he would find it awkward to decline, although he does not know what his role on the committee would be. Because of this, he felt that the lack of invitation is respectful and enough, since both sides will not need to feel uncomfortable and go back and forth on whether iLaw would accept such an invitation or not.

iLaw and other civil society groups formed a network known as the People’s Constitution Drafting Group. They launched a campaign to collect 50,000 signatures to call for a referendum on whether the 2017 Constitution should be entirely amended by an elected Constituent Assembly. After being informed by the Election Commission of Thailand (ECT) that online signatures would not be accepted, the campaign gained over 200,000 signatures within the space of 3 days and the petition was submitted to the ECT on 30 August.

On 21 September, iLaw said that the network has been informed by the ECT that the signatures have been processed. The petition will then be forwarded to the Secretariat of the Cabinet so it can be included in the Cabinet’s agenda.